Understanding Positive Psychology and its Relevance to Organizations

Abstract

understands quite a bit about how people survive and endure under conditions of adversity, but knows very little about how normal people flourish under more benign conditions. This science was largely concerned with healing and repairing damage with the pathological model of human functioning.Almost as a reaction to this, a group of psychologists, under the leadership of Martin Seligman proposed the study of Psychology. The aim of is to study the best things in life that lead to well being, to positive individuals, and to flourishing community.Positive emphasis is on building structures, cultures, processes, leadership and other organizational conditions that foster positive dynamics in human communities. Focusing on the positives however does not mean exclusion of negatives because the school of thought believes that negative forces lead to positives and excluding them altogether would be unrealistic.Positive as defined by Luthans is the study and application of positive oriented human resource strengths and psychological capacities that can be measured, developed and effectively managed for performance improvement in today's workplaceThe field of Positive Psychology is still in its nascent stage and researchers and psychologists are currently at work to build a body of knowledge for it to be productively used for the betterment of society. In its current level of understanding it is fitted into a threetier framework.At the subjective levelit is about positive experiences, at the individual level it is about the character strengths and at the group level it is about the civic virtues and the institutions that move individuals toward better citizenship.Subjective Experiences could relate to the past, e.g., wellbeing, contentment, satisfaction; the future, e.g., optimism, hope, spiritualityand toward the present, e.g., flow, joy, flexible attention, pleasure, ebullience, and communion.A cardinal aspect of quality of life is the amount of positive subjective experience in that life interest, pleasure, joy, affection, fulfillment, and contentment. Subjective positive experience reflects an individual's evaluation of his or her own life, whether the appraisal is in terms of a cognitive judgment, pleasant emotions, physical pleasure, or pleasant interest. These experiences give various indications of how the individual judges his/her ongoing life. Some of these modes of appraisal, such as life satisfaction judgments, represent long-term or big-picture evaluations, and others such as physical pleasure represent a shorter-term, biologically based evaluation. A person's life is replete with positive subjective experience when s/he feels frequent pleasant emotions, finds a pleasant interest in most daily activities, feels a degree of physical pleasure, judges his or her life and important domains such as work and health to be very satisfying, and finds his or her Ufe to be meaningful and fulfilling.The Individual level deals with strengths of character that defines a positive individual and the Good Life:These characteristics are part of* Relationships and Connections (Love and Intimacy, Satisfying Work, Helping Others, being a good citizen, Spirituality and Leadership).* Individual Qualities (Principles and Integrity, Creativity, Perseverance and Courage) and* Life Regulation (Future-mindedness, Individuality, Self Regulation and Wisdom)At the Group Level the key is Civic Virtues and the Institutions that move Individuals towards better citizenship: responsibility, parenting, altruism, civility, moderation, tolerance, and work ethic.This includes institutions such as legislative bodies, schools, the press, and public service can promote civility, reciprocity, tolerance of diversity, equality, and opportunity. In positive communities, individuals presumably are more likely to realize the positive individual traits mentioned earlier. …